India will look at investing in more oilfields abroad, Petroleum Minister Ram Naik said in Tehran on Monday.

He said India's maiden bid in acquiring a stake in a Sudanese oil field has started giving rich dividends.

"Our first consignment of crude oil from Sudan will arrive at Managalore port next week," Naik said. "We had picked up 25 per cent stake for Rs 3600 crore from the Canadian company Talisman in the Nile Oil Company in Sudan, which produces 12 million tonnes of crude annually. With this investment, India will get a quarter of production or three million tonnes of crude a year."

Naik is in Tehran for ministerial level talks with Iran on cooperation in the energy sector. He is accompanied by M S Srinivasan, additional secretary in petroleum ministry, Subir Raha, ONGC chairman and managing sirector, M S Ramachandran, IOC chairman, B S Negi, GAIL (India) director.

On the issue of transporting gas from Iran, Naik said safety will be the top priority. One of the proposals for taking gas from Iran to India is an overland pipelind through Pakistan in which Islamabad has shown considerable interest.

"But any final decision will hinge on safety of imports particularly because India may soon have a critical dependence on gas supplies for industry and development," Naik said. "We are importing 50 per cent of our gas from abroad, which is going up as our energy consumption is rising by 5 per cent every year."

The second option of a deep-sea pipeline from Iran to India is being given more attention as an estimate of the cost of the project, hanging fire from 1994, is being done by Iranian national oil company and Gas Authority of India limited, he said.

India has signed a 25-year agreement for gas imports from Qatar by tankers and the option was also available for Iran, he added. In return for a deal to buy CNG from Iran, a package including Indian investment in Iranian oil fields is being considered, he said.

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